Choosing a web hosting is an important step in creating a website. The whole functioning of your web resource depends on this choice. All hosting providers are divided into two big groups: free web hosts and shared ones. In the first place let me say that many of the free web hosting providers are not … Continue reading “Choosing a Web Hosting”

Choosing a web hosting is an important step in creating a website. The whole functioning of your web resource depends on this choice.

All hosting providers are divided into two big groups: free web hosts and shared ones.
In the first place let me say that many of the free web hosting providers are not exactly free, i.e. in exchange for their services they may locate their advertisements on your website.

If your website is a home page containing your personal information or a small web resource where you share information on a certain topic, free web hosting will most probably be enough for you. In case your website is an information portal, service or a site of your company, you should definitely use services of shared web hosting.

Difference between shared and free web hosting

As mentioned above, very often free web hosts insert their ads in the form of banners or pop-ups. Visitors of your website won’t be happy with it as it is widely known that advertisements are irritating, especially the pop-up ones. Therefore, if your goal is to attract the audience who are willing to visit your website regularly, coming back again and again in a day, a week, a month and not just shutting your resource in 5 seconds after getting to your first page, then choose hosting without advertisements.

What is more, with free web hosts you can only expect such domain as your_site.host.com. Such domain will hardly affect the reputation of your website in a positive way; it will sooner harm its image, especially if it’s a company’s website.

“Why aren’t the pictures loading up?” -SUPPORT SERVICE will provide you with answers for such questions. It is absolutely necessary to have one because good service support really speeds up the problem-solving process. 90% of shared web hosting providers have adequate service support and only 10% of free web hosting providers have one.

Not every free hosting can boast such services as their own CGI-BIN directory, or the support of Perl, PHP, MYSQL, Cron, SSH, Telnet and many others. And even if right now your web resource needs none of these, such a necessity may appear in the nearest future with the growth of your website. With time you will also need more and more disc space. Free web hosts usually give you 1-100 Mb while shared web hosts provide 1-5000 Mb for your website.

So, the bottom line is as follows.

If you have just a home page or a small website about your interests, go for a free web hosting without doubts. But before choosing a particular hosting you should:

determine the disc space volume you are going to need, taking into consideration further growth of your resource;
decide whether you need the support of scripts, whether it’s necessary to have a file manager or you will do just fine using ftp-access, whether you need a site-generator
think over the domain name. It should be short and easy to remember.
define your attitude as to host’s ads: whether you are against it or not

When you are done with all these things, eliminate all the hosts that do not meet your requirements. I would advise you to check out the loading speed of websites located at hosting providers that suit your needs. And then you just choose the host with the least crowded channels.

FTP access. Support of PHP, Perl, Python, SSI and much more. There is also a catalogue of ready-made scripts with a possibility to adapt the design to your website – the optimal choice for a beginning webmaster.

Shared Hosting
Some may say that shared hosting is expensive, but it’s just a myth. Its prices vary from 1 to 50 dollars a month depending on the set of services and resources provided. Naturally shared hosting doesn’t have the disadvantages of the free one.

Nevertheless, shared web hosting providers differ according to the range and quality of services. Here are some criteria that will guide you in your choice of the shared web host:

A host should not put tough restrictions on traffic. At least there should be a possibility to pay if you exceed the limit, but the pay should not be too high.

If you need ASP, FrontPage Server, MSSQL, then you should be looking for a web hosting on NT-server and the host itself should provide these services. Otherwise, you’d better choose UNIX-hosting.

It is desirable that a host should provide Perl, SSI, PHP, MYSQL…

Apart from disc space a host should provide mail. Make sure it covers the services of ingoing and outgoing mail. Sometimes it happens so that a host provides you with e-mail addresses and not with e-mail boxes. In this case all your mail will be redirected to the e-mail box you’ve indicated, which will hamper your job.

A hosting provider should have its support service – working 24/7 through e-mail as well as through telephone (fax). Ask them some questions – a good hosting provider will answer you within 24 hours. If they keep ignoring you, or if there is no support service at all, keep away from such hosts.

Check out what rights you are going to exercise as to managing the server. As a minimum, you should have FTP-access to your catalogue – it will allow you to carry out necessary actions when forwarding, editing or deleting files. It would be advisable that a host had web interface to work with your server and your account.

If you are an experienced user, then it is desirable that a host provided telnet-access – you will be able to work with the provider’s computer almost on the same level as with your own one.

Good hosting is speedy web hosting. The less crowded the provider’s servers and channels are – the better. Minimal bandwidth should be no less than Pentium III-800 Mhz with 512 Ðb RAM

It is good practice for a web hosting provider to have their physical address and some other data

Before finally submitting the payment, get acquainted with Internet reviews of other users about this host

Surely, it’s by far not a complete list of all the criteria according to which one should choose a web hosting provider. But if a host meets all the requirements mentioned above, you can start working with them.

The first thing before choosing a web host is that you should be fully aware of your hosting requirements. If you are a beginner wanting to host a personal web site, then your only concern is that you get a decent amount of disk space for your web site with a host that is as cheap as $5 per month. However, if you are a developer, an online entrepreneur or an online business looking for e-commerce capabilities or advanced scripting technologies, then you can determine your requirements in the following order.

(1) Whether you need Shared Hosting or Dedicated Hosting:

This depends mainly on two major requirements, the traffic your web site is expected to receive and the degree of administrative privileges you need. If you expect your web site to receive huge amounts of traffic, then you will need to have a Dedicated Server which definitely has a much greater bandwidth offering. Also you should select Dedicated server hosting if your web site requires customized options, secure information or complex applications i.e. e-commerce, dynamic content, database and multimedia applications.

(2) Whether you need Linux Hosting or Windows Hosting:

If you’re going to use server technologies such as ASP, JSP etc or intend to run Microsoft applications like Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database on your server, then you should use a Windows hosting provider. Although ASP can be run on the Linux platform using some commercial applications, there are security and reliability concerns related to it. However, if you want to use ColdFusion, it can run on both Linux and Windows platforms.

(3) What are your Space and Bandwidth requirements:

Many web hosts nowadays offer generous amounts of disk space from 1 GB to 3 GB. However, if your web site mainly acts as a download resource, then your disk space requirements may be 5 to 10 times greater than this. The second consideration is how much traffic your web site is expected to receive which will let you estimate your bandwidth requirements.

(4) How many Parked Domains and Subdomains do you need:

Parked domains are very advantageous and can significantly increase the amount of traffic to your web site. Similarly, subdomains can help with your search engine rankings by pointing to specific directories of your web site. Parked domains and subdomains occasionally come free with certain web hosting packages. However if you need more, you will have to pay an additional price per month.

(5) FTP Accounts and Anonymous FTP Requirements:

You may need more than one FTP account if you have coworkers working on your web site project at different locations. The Anonymous FTP permits the general public to access certain directories on your web server to whom they have been granted permission by you. In most cases, you will need a dedicated IP address for Anonymous FTP to function.

(6) Whether you need e-commerce Features:

If you need e-commerce features, you should choose a web host that provides e-commerce functionality such as shopping carts and the ability to accept credit cards. You should also check whether their server is SSL secure.

In addition to your own hosting requirements, the following considerations must be kept in mind when looking for a quality web host.

(1) More than 99.5% uptime:

Choose a web host that has an uptime greater than 99.5% and if there is an uptime guarantee, it’s even better. If your web site is for business purposes, it’s very crucial that your site stays online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

(2) Fast Servers:

The level of connectivity of your web host to the Internet is very important. So you should choose a web host with at least a T3 connection to the major Internet backbone. Analysis has shown that the average web visitor waits for about 30 seconds before your web page loads. So if your web site takes more than 30 seconds to load, chances are that you will loose a lot of visitors and consequently sales.

(3) Server Backups:

To make your data secure, your web host must have a power backup system and should backup the data to an external device in order to prevent the data loss due to failure. Check how frequently the web host backups the data, i.e. daily or weekly.

(4) Disk Space and Bandwidth:

Choose a web host that meets your disk space and bandwidth requirements. Most web hosts offer 1 GB to 3 GB of disk space, so if your web site is not mainly a download resource, then this factor is not that important for you. However, as regards the bandwidth, it should be as much as possible because your traffic can increase in the future thereby requiring more data transfer. Also check that you have the option of buying more disk space and bandwidth when required.

(5) Unrestricted CGI, SSH, FTP access & Anonymous FTP:

If you have a professional web site, you will need to run CGI scripts, have SSH (Secure Shell) access and FTP access. CGI and FTP access is provided by most web hosts whereas SSH access is provided by a few. You may also need to check if anonymous FTP access is provided.

(6) Software/Scripts:

Choose a web host that has an extensive script library that you can use to add guestbooks, forms, surveys, newsletters etc to your web site.

(7) E-commerce capabilities and SSL:

Choose a web host that provides you with e-commerce capabilities with shopping cart software and also merchant accounts. The web host must also have an SSL secure server for safe and risk-free transactions.

(8) Web-Based Administration:

Almost all web hosts nowadays provide a control panel to access and manage web site features. Ask for a demo of their control panel if possible and check to make sure that it is simple as well as comprehensive. The control panel should provide access to FTP, e-mail, databases, e-commerce and all other functions for effective web site management. VDeck 2.0 and CPanel are the leading brands of administration control panels.

The online world is continuing to lure many aspiring entrepreneurs to satisfy their desires to have a business of their own. The days when you needed to have access to a large amount of capital, just to get a business started, have long gone.

Now, a working laptop or desktop computer and a reliable internet connection are all you need to open up a successful business. No matter what product or service you are planning to offer, in order to start any online business, you will require a website. Your website should be convenient and easy to use in order to entice your prospective customers to buy from you.

You will also need to make it easy for customers to return and make repeat purchases, or refer your site on to their friends or social media contacts to spread the word. The simple truth is, your website could make or break your business.

Because of this, it is extremely important to find a reliable web hosting company to accommodate all your online business’s hosting needs.

Listed below are some general tips to consider when choosing a web hosting service to get you started:

1. Consider your requirements The two biggest factors you will need to consider are bandwidth and storage capacity. Chances are that several transactions are going to take place simultaneously once your site goes live and your customer base grows. You will also need to consider if you are going to be storing a lot of files and data on your site’s backend.

If this is the case, then you should go for a web hosting service who can give you a plan covering a large bandwidth and has a large storage capacity. If not, then it is just a waste of money to get a large-scale hosting plan. If you’re not certain yet what your requirements will be, get the least expensive plan first, evaluate the service for a month, and make some changes afterwards.

Tip: Many hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth and storage on a large number of their basic plans. So it’s important to check out as many as possible.

2. Do your research There are a large number of web hosting companies that you can search for online, but just be sure to do some thorough research before making a final decision. Read reviews of different companies and try to find as much information as possible. Do a comparative study on some of the companies and choose the one that best suits your needs.

3. Review their customer support services If this is your first online business, there will likely be instances when you’ll need help. For this reason it is important that you decide on a web hosting service that offers good customer service and support. Try contacting them to ask about their services.

If they are prompt, provide simple, easy to understand answers and are easy to talk to, you will get a fairly good idea about whether you can count of their technical support when you need it.

4. Site builders Unless you are an experienced web designer you probably know very little about building a website from scratch. This is the reason many web hosting providers offer web site builders with their plans. Site builders are great for beginners as they make building your site as simple as a mouse click and drag.

Tip: Make sure to check whether a site builder is in fact included in the plans though, as there are some hosts who offer their site builders for an extra fee.

5. Steer clear of free web hosting While free web hosting may seem like a good idea when you are starting out, you really should think again, as there are several big drawbacks. Have you ever known many things in life to be truly free? I haven’t. And this is a good example.

Free web hosts have to get revenue from somewhere, and they typically do this by placing advertisement on your site. “But I will have advertisements on my site any way”, I hear you say? The problem with advertisements from a free web host is that you have no control over what they advertise on your site. This creates a credibility problem as your customers will be seeing these unnecessary ads.

The other problem is the domain name. With a free host your domain will be a sub-domain of their company. For instance http://www.yoursite.theirsite.com or vice versa, instead of http://www.yoursite.com. See the difference? Customers will likely not take your business seriously if you don’t choose a dedicated domain name.

So if you’re serious about your business, and serious about making money, choose a professional web hosting company and a dedicated domain name.

Tip: many hosting companies offer free.com domain names with their hosting packages. Hopefully these tips will get you on your way to finding a reliable host for your online business.

There are many criteria in choosing a web hosting service. First you should bear in mind that there are two kinds of web hosting; the ‘Free web hosting – these are the services we down load for free but the services and benefits we get here is not that sufficient and very limited.

Second is the ‘Commercial hosting – it gives full support, benefits and services when ever we need and the access is unlimited. When you select a hosting service, choose the one that can provide you with fast and better connection to the net.

If you are setting up an office, it is important to count how many computers will be par taking the server. Choosing a web hosting service will depend on the number of users. The more users you have, the slower the server will be; you should be prominent in looking for a best web hosting service in order to get a good catch.

If you know about bandwidth, then you have to be extra careful also, so that you won’t have to pay extra charges whenever you come across with high traffic going to your website. Still the best rate in selecting a web hosting service commercially is to go for flat rate.

It means no matter how many traffic that comes into your site, you still pay same amount monthly. Do not go for a rate that is based on number of uses. In choosing a web hosting service, it is important to look for things like; what support are they going to offer? Is it a 24 hour hosting support? Is it speed enough? Are they getting unreasonable burden for customer service? There are many doubtful things you can encounter in the future.

It is always beneficial to plan ahead of time. If you can find a company that provides virtual hosting, the better; Virtual hosting allows you to have a domain of your own, instead of using the host’s URL. Make sure also that you can have your own directory access.

This is important in choosing a web hosting service. The directory access provides you with unlimited scripts. If you are familiar or know about programming, things will be a whole lot easier for you, but if you are unfamiliar about programming, I suggest you choose web base administration.

One thing to choose for is a host that allows you to use FTP; this will help you much in facilitating uploaded and downloaded files. Also do not ignore your email resources. Sometimes you work more on your emails than the server. It is beneficial to choose host server with POP inbox.

The main course in choosing a web hosting service is for advertising. Putting in banner on your web pages is very important, some, may opt to pop of windows so you’d better choose one that is comfortable to you. Always remember that what ever method you choose, do not forget about FTP access.

Web hosting research will generally be required if you trying to find out how to choose a web host for your needs. Each hosting service has its own range of features to offer you, and while you do not want to pay for features and services you will never use, you need some degree of flexibility should your website take off.

Not only are there large numbers of web hosting services out there, but each may also offer you a number of options ranging from a simple single-domain website to a reseller option that you can use to set up your own hosting business.

The secret of successful web hosting research is to understand your own ambitions, how realistic they are and where you want to start and end. You can then choose a service that offers you a simple inexpensive starting point, but can also enable you to expand seamlessly as your online business develops.

Price should not be your first consideration since a cheap or very expensive web hosting service is of little use to you if it fails to meet all your needs or excessively exceeds them. Here are some of the options you should be considering when carrying out your web hosting research.

1. Disk Space

Disk space is amount of hard disk storage your host offers you. This in turn will limit the number of files you can store on your web space. If you use a lot of graphics, these files can take up a great deal of storage space. Anything less than unlimited should be examined vary carefully in case they have other important features not offered by the other options. In general, however, most users should select unlimited web space storage.

2. Bandwidth

The term bandwidth refers to the amount of data you are permitted to upload or download in a given time period. The vast majority of hosting services today will offer unlimited bandwidth.

3. Multiple Domains

It is possible to run a number of websites from the one account. Add-on domains enable you to purchase multiple domain names and run these from their own directories as completely unique websites. So you can own, for example, 5 different domain names, and run these as 5 different websites using the one web hosting account. Look for ‘unlimited domains’ – anything less would limit you.

4. Site Building Software

For those that do not, or cannot, use website building software such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage, site building software will be essential. Such systems are HTML editors that generally also offer WYSIWYG functionality, enabling you to build your own site. Most also offer a template-driven system, where you can modify templates to meet your needs. Even those conversant with HTML find such a package useful for modifying and extending existing web pages.

5. Traffic Analysis

A good hosting service should offer traffic analysis that informs you of your traffic stats: how many visitors you have to each page, how long they stay on each page and which are the most popular pages. A useful statistic to have is the most popular entry and exit pages on your site, so you can optimize the former and improve on the latter.

6. Uptime Guarantee

You do not want to spend time waiting for your service to come online before you can access your website. A minimum of 99.7% uptime guarantee is acceptable, but 99.9% would be better. That means that for every 1,000 hours, there would be one hour when your website was offline.

7. Email Services

You will require an email service to go with your website, an also one for each of your extra domains. Your web host might offer you unlimited email addresses, though this is not needed unless you require a reseller service. You will be lucky if you can service 50 email addresses let alone hundreds. What you should look for is spam protection and webmail. The former will help filter out spam according to rules you can set yourself, while webmail enables you to use a service such as Outlook or Eudora to check all your emails from all your sites using the one webmail service.

8. Customer Support

Customer support is essential, and if you can get live support by telephone then all the better. Most offer an email support system while some may also provide a live chat service. The service should be toll free, and preferably open 24/7 so that it can be used from anywhere in the world at any time.

9. Scripts and Software

When carrying out research in to the best service for you, you should make sure that you understand what ancillary scripts and software services are being offered. For example, MySQL is a personal database system that is essential for running many software applications involving the collection of data. PHP and CGI/Perl support is necessary as is Java and Flash.

If you register with a service that operates using the cPanel control panel system, then all that is included. CPanel also offers many other services such as Fantastico De Luxe that enables you to install applications such as WordPress onto your websites with a click of a button so you can run WordPress blogs from each of your domains.

It is not always the most expensive web hosting service that is the best for you. The above information is generally what you need to know when finding how to choose a service for your needs. When carrying out your web host research, make sure that you get what you want and that you are able to expand your websites at a later date.